Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (12 page)

“Young Kadin has completed his
Seeking. We must rejoice in his success for it is ours as well!” His voice
boomed out over the square and was met with rapturous applause and whistles
chirping shrilly in between.
 
The Cha was
smiling broadly. When the noise died down, he spoke again. “Kadin, please join
me on the dais.”

I walked proudly trying to
ignore the few disapproving looks I got. I heard a few whispers about my sword.
Not even the Kichwa’s Sword of the Navitas was a match for the glory of Sunder.
I caught him peering at it as well with his mouth drawn in a tight disapproving
line and thunder brewing in his eyes.

Moma walked up to the Cha and
handed him a small package wrapped in fine blue silk. The Cha shook my hand
warmly. “Congratulations.” Louder, he said, “I present to you the Denouement
gift.”

He handed the silk package to me
with a bow. All successful Seekers receive a Denouement gift, but no two gifts
were alike. The Cha chose it based on what you reported on your return.
 
Some people never revealed what they were
given, but that was your choice.

Quietly he whispered to me, “It
is called a sentinel. May it serve you
well.
Use it
only in your most desperate hour of need, because you can only use it once.” He
flourished a nimble bow to the crowd and I mimicked him. The crowd once again
erupted in cheers.

The celebrations went on into
the early morning and as I was still exhausted from my long ride home, it
continued well after I had given in to exhaustion and gone home. I lighted my
oil lamp and placed the still silk wrapped package in my chest before taking
the Book of Remembrance out.

Kicking my boots off, I lay down
and started reading the introductory page written in the same neat script I had
seen at the bottom of the picture of the Dyrrendrel. ‘Reader
beware
:
power lies in names. Naming awakes the slumbering. Do not name those you do not
wish to summon.’ My lids were heavy and my eyes burning and I closed them to
rest a moment.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Morning
rays slanting in through my window woke me. I started awake; the Book, but it
was still lying on my chest open to the introductory page. I wished I could
sleep a little longer, but the Shea-Rin called. I stretched out, picked up
Sunder and managed to complete it with only the merest sheen of sweat.

I washed with the cold water in
my room before taking out my sketchpad and charcoal. I started with the
Dyrrendrel, but by the time I was done, I had sketched my mother and father as
I had seen them during the Cha’s telling, King Vlearian standing with Sunder,
Quiniewa, Grer, Master Boryka, even the young boy from the burned village. It
felt like it released some of the tension I had been carrying around. I
inspected each sketch critically and was satisfied with what I had done. My
stomach rumbled loudly and I set off to the town dining hall.

I found Prea, Jench and Wilm at
our usual table. With some annoyance, I noted Jamber’s absence, but I tried to
convince myself it had nothing to do with what happened the night before.

Jench waved a greeting.
 
“Kadin, we were just speculating on your
denouement gift.
 
Prea here thinks it is
some herbal cure all remedy, Wilm is guessing some sort of small, but deadly
weapon I am inclined to think it is something to do with your father or your
mother. So put them out of their misery and tell them I am right.”

With a start, I realised I had
not even looked at the gift yet. I had intended on looking at it last night. I
frowned. “I do not actually know.”

Prea grinned. “I told you he
would keep it to himself. I think I would as well.
Especially
if my gift was so small!”
This brought a round of laughter from all of
them.

I laughed with them.
“Yes, very funny, but no.
I have not opened it yet and
therefore I cannot tell you what is inside. I fell asleep so quickly last night
that I did not get a chance and this morning it completely slipped my mind. I
am going to get my breakfast.”

Now that I remembered, I
couldn’t stop thinking about the little blue silk package. “So is Jamber not
joining us today then?” Prea and Jench exchanged a meaningful look.

Prea answered. “We saw him
before we came in. He said he’s already had breakfast.” The way in which he
said that told me that he had not believed him. Wilm said nothing, but he was
shaking his head.
 
I decided to shrug it
off, sure that he would get over whatever was bothering him soon enough. I
wolfed down my breakfast, only stopping to give quick responses to their talk
of small things. As soon as I cleared my plate, I made my excuses and left.

As I walked away from the dining
hall, I turned a corner and froze in my steps.
 
A short distance away, Jamber was talking quietly with Brant. Brant!
They hated each other even more than Brant and I!

I ducked back around the corner
so that they could not see me. Without even realising that I was doing it, I
reached for Navitas. It felt as though I might as well have been deaf a minute
before in comparison to the noise that rushed over me. I could just catch what
they were saying.

Brant was speaking. “...mist was
all there was to it. That it did not actually even do anything.”

“That is what I
thought
! I didn’t know about anything
else.” The exasperation in Jamber’s voice made it sound as if he was repeating
something that he had said several times before.

Brant snorted. “You better hope
I don’t find out you have been keeping information from me.
For
your and your father’s sake.”
I peeked around the corner and released
Navitas. Brant stormed off and Jamber walked away in the opposite direction.
His shoulders were slumped and he was scowling at the ground.
 

Surely, Jamber had not revealed
what had happened during my Hunt. Surely! He would not. He was my brother. My
heart was racing. He would not have told him about Markai. Would he? No, no, I
was sure he would not do that to me. He would not betray my confidence.

I tried to convince myself that
I was being foolish. I was misinterpreting a half-heard conversation, which
made me feel a bit guilty for eavesdropping. Putting all thought on it away, I
hurried home and removed the package from my chest. Carefully, I untied the
strings and removed the silk. It revealed a small dark wooden box.
 
Suddenly curiosity burnt any stray thoughts
about Jamber’s odd conversation away.
 

The box had symbols engraved on
it. I found myself trying to puzzle out what they meant for it was clear it was
some sort of script.
 
One looked like a
gnarled tree with thorns instead of leaves, another looked almost human, but with
too large ears and three eyes. The box creaked as I slowly opened the lid.
Inside was a gold disc.

It was surprisingly heavy. It
too was engraved with some of those same symbols. I turned it over. On the
other side, it had a symbol that looked very familiar, although for the life of
me I could not remember where I had seen it before. It was wings inside a
diamond shape. The wings were so intricately carved that it looked as though
they could take flight. Above the wings in the corner of the diamond was an x,
but it was rounded at the top and bottom, which made it look like a spider with
four legs. Underneath the symbol was carved; ‘We come when summoned, but bearer
be aware, we come but once.’

Looking at it, I did not see an
obvious way of using it. There was no hinge, no demarcation line on it
whatsoever. It seemed essentially to be a simple, if beautiful, gold disc. I
carefully packed and stored it away again in my chest. The diamond and wing
symbol kept intruding on my thoughts. I knew I had seen it before, but where? I
decided to ask Master Haer, Wilm’s father. He had travelled so much that
perhaps he had come across it.

I found him behind the bar of
the inn. He smiled warmly when he saw me. “Kadin, I never got a chance to
congratulate you last night.
Very well done.
Here have
a cider on the house.”

I returned his smile. Master
Haer had always been kind to me. “Much appreciated, sir. I actually came here
seeking your worldly knowledge.”

His smiled turned amused. “Oh?”

I took out a copy I had made of
the symbol, as I did not particularly want to show the disc. “Do you recognise
this? Only, I cannot place where I had seen it, but it seems very familiar.”

He frowned at it. “It looks
vaguely, no, I think I may be
mixin
’ it up with
something else. No, cannot say that I do. Wings are used in many symbols so I
do not think they even narrow it down. The cross at the top, I think that has
something to do with danger, but I may be wrong about that. Sorry I couldn’t be
of more help to you.”
 

I smiled. “No matter, I knew
there was small chance you would know it.” We talked on small things while I
drank my cider. Eventually I bid him farewell and headed back home. I knew I
had to start looking through the Book of Remembrance before we left Predaki and
time was getting short.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

I sat at
my desk with the Book rereading the introductory warning. ‘Reader
beware
: power lies in names. Naming awakes the slumbering.
Do not name those you do not wish to summon.’ It again sent chills down my
spine.

A quick look showed me that the
Book had two main sections, the first for the Twisted Ones and the second for
the Dark Children. Not all had drawings with them, some stating that no one who
had had the misfortune of actually meeting one of the creature had lived to
tell the tale. That made me wonder how they had any information on it at all.
Perhaps from other of Rakadamon’s creatures?
 

The Book contained the makings
of nightmares.
Worse than my nightmares.
Things beyond imagining.
One was a creature aptly called
Haze which forms as if from mist, but whose steel was stronger and sharper than
any other known.
Its
only known weakness was fire.
Faceless, a creature of stealth seemingly easily defeated or at the least
scared off, if you see it before it kills you. Lakreay was another. The picture
was of a creature covered in scales like a lizard. It had long sharp nails,
almost claws. The next page described how a single bite or scratch from this
creature could kill. It produces a poison, which slowly causes the flesh of its
victim to rot and not only the initial area, but as the poison spreads through
the bloodstream, it eventually affects the whole body. There was no known cure.

After some time of reading
through the Book, I felt physically sick. How could humankind ever defend
itself against such abominations? How was I supposed to do anything about this?
I decided to get some fresh air. I found myself walking to Lake Uzuri with
Sunder on my hip being a reassuring weight against all the terrible things that
I had been reading about.

I sat at the water’s edge skipping
stones. I remembered something the Cha had told me. He had said that I needed
to learn how to call Markai without Navitas. I needed something to rid me of
thoughts of those Dark Creatures and this was as good a time as any to try. I
cleared my mind as I would when I reach for Navitas, but this time I brought to
mind an image of Markai. I focused on her completely, willing her to appear.

I opened my eyes.
Nothing.
I sighed and started again, several times, but with
the same result each time. If what you were doing was not getting you the
results that you desired, you needed to change what you were doing or how you
did it.

So, I started again with
clearing my thoughts, but this time I did not simply imagine an image of
Markai, but I thought about the feeling I get when we have physical contact. I
focused on this so intensely that I almost felt the flames running across my
body and the icy water running under my skin. Then, keeping this feeling
sharply in mind, I thought of the connectedness I have with her. The way I
could feel her emotions, almost hear her thoughts. While thinking of this I
tried to convey my calling across this bond. It felt like I was trying to call
someone that was on the other side of the great waters.

The fire across my skin became a
blaze. The heat so intense, the only thing keeping me from burning must have
been the freezing water running under my skin.
 
The sensation came to a peak. I opened my eyes and found I was staring
into Markai’s eyes, glowing with alarm. The intensity of my call had apparently
been a little excessive and she was sure she would find me in a dire situation.
However, when she realised what I was doing, this quickly turned to amusement.
It seemed that with my forceful effort I had used a sword to slice a tomato. I
grinned.
 
It should be easier next time
then.

I started wondering about where
she went when she wasn’t with me. I hadn’t even considered this before and I
felt a bit ashamed about that. She must have understood what I was thinking
about because she ‘told’ me that she went home. I could see a place much like
the area around Predaki, but with unfamiliar plants and there were two moons in
the sky. Here Markai was surrounded by a pack of her own kind.